Briquet-machine.



E. FERNHOLTZ.

BRIQUET MACHINE.

APPLlCATlON FILED APR. 8| 19\2 I 1,265,441 Patented May 7,1918;

3 SHEETS-SHEET l.

171.gif

E. FERNHOLTZ.

BRIQUET MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED APR-18,1912. 1,265,44L Patented May 7,1918.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Zdi j Inventor 7266666 E'vm Fern/zoltx K/GLM/w,

E. FERNHGLTZ.

BRIQUET MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED APR. Is. 1912.

Patented. May 7, 1918.

3 SHEETS--SHEET 3 nu Inl/cnw?" Em/.Fernhltz A M www man eataaas EMIL FERNHOLTZ, 0F LOS ANGELES, CLIFOBNIA.

BRIQUET-MACHINE.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Patented May 7, M1918.

Application iiled April 18, 1912. Serial No. 691,757.

A 'ect of this invention is the perfecting of a riqueting machine, and thereby to roduce an improved briquet though it is nderstood that I do not limit myself to the production of a particular form of socal ed briquets.

In my former application for method of and means for pressing bricks, filed Sept. ll, 1909, Serial No; 517,722, I have indicated the cause of checking and cracking of the molded object and the remedy for such checking and cracking.

The method in said application consisted essentially of a preliminary compression, relaxation, shifting, rubbing, re-compression, relaxation and expulsion of the molded object.

I have discovered that the tendency to checking and cracking will be materially reduced if not entirely overcome by diminishing the pressure to a fourth, more or less, of the maximum pressure and discharging the molded object under such diminished pressure, the diminution in pressure being just suiiieient together with the adhesion of the particles to hold the molded object in perfect shape while at the same time permitting the compressed air to gradually escape at the edges of the molded object.

lt is clear that, as heretofore suggested or practised, if the molded object were ejected from the mold without being under any pressure, or if it were ejected While under full pressure, the compressed air in the briquet would suddenly expand in the nature of an explosion and would force some of the particles asunder, thus producing the objectionable checking and cracking.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a safety device whereby cramping of the rams and resulting excessive pressures may be avoided so that destruction of the machine will not occur.

The improved machine is similar in many respects to the machine shown in my be fore-mentioned earlier application but differs therefrom by several structural modiications invented by me and whereby the desired sequence of movements and 'greater strength and rigidity are obtained. Such newly invented structural modifications are principally in the contours and relative timing of the cams; in the end standards being formed partly of castings and partly of bars that anchor theV castings together and' form guides for the cross-heads; in a pairing of the lift-out cams and their parts; 1n a novel construction and arrangement of the charging lever; and further in the provision of a pair of spacer arms which act with the bottom ram holder and which extend to within an eighth of an inch, more or less, of the top roller shaft so that in case unequal amounts of material were to be charged into different parts of the mold and in consequence thereof the top roller shaft would be thrown out of parallelism with the bottom roller shaft, the lower end of the top roller shaft thus canted would be supported by the spacer arms 35 therebeneath while the other end of the top roller shaft is being forced down by its cam until the roller is justified; that is, until parallelism of the two rollers is again established, so as to prevent excessive pressure between the adjacent ends of opposite plungers if for any reason the top pressure mechanism should get out of adjustment.

Other objects and advantages may appear from the subjoined detail description.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention.

Figure l is a perspective view from Athe feed side of a machine built in accordance with this invention.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view from the discharge side of the machine in Fig. l.

Fig. 3 is an elevation, partly in vertical mid-section, from the right of Fig. l and from the left of Fig. 2. The parts are in 111e tup alla UOBLOIII I'am l10l 1erS 14, l5 are recessed so as to conform to and accommodate the bottom and top of the top and bottom bearing rollers 18, 19, respectively, which are preferably in pairs and are journaled on roller shafts 20, 21,;that are mounted at their ends in the top and bottom cross-heads 16, 17, respectively.

The top ram holder 14 and the top bearing rollers 18 are quite massive so as to constitute a Weight superposed on the top rams 12, said weight together with the weight of substantially one-fourth of the maximum pressure produced in the machine as indicated in the drawings, and for the reason stated hereinafter.

The bottom bearing rollers 19 rest upon bottom pressure cams 22, which are mounted on a cam shaft 23, that is journaled in the standard base members 2 and is pro vided on its outward projecting end with a gear whee1-24. which is driven by a pinion 25 that is mounted on one projecting end of a pinion shaft 26 which is journaled in the frames 8 and which is provided on its other projecting end with a gear wheel 27 that is in turn driven by a pinion 28, which is l mounted on a pulley shaft 29 that is journaled in the frames 8 and that is provided with a pulley 30 for connection by a belt, not shown, to any suitable source of power,

not shown.

The pinion 25 also ydrives a gear wheel 31 which is mounted on the projecting outer end of a top cam shaft 32 that is journaled in the standard top members 4 and that is 1 60 provided with a pair of top pressure cams 33 adapted to intermittently bear against the top-bearing rollers 18.

The relative contours and timing of the b'ottom and top pressure cams 22, 33, are such as will during a portion of their cycles,

weight of the top rams constituting a total briquet is entirely lifted out of the mold against the dead weight. Then, but not until then, the upper ram-holder. 14 is lifted 90 by suitable lift-out means 40 hereinafter described, thus leaving the briquets free-to be discharged.

'It is understood that the degree and length of time of the compression or the briquet may vary, being different in different machines 1n accordance with the momentum of the moving parts which may be varied at the option of the constructor and that the compression may be greater or less at different portions of the cycle, the most essential point being that the briquet is discharged from the mold while. the briquet is still undercompressiomso that the briquet will not be checked and cracked by escape of the air compressed therein.

I have discovered that a desirable degree of compression can be maintained upon the briquets whilev discharging the same b the Weight of the incumbent top rams, ram olders and rollers 12, 14 and 18 and the other parts moving therewith, as hereinafter described, all of such parts, combined .with the resistance caused by the friction of the briquet and the mold walls against which it has been compressed, producing a compressive pressure on the 'briquets of from two hundred to three hundred pounds per square inch and approximately one-fourth of the maximum pressure produced by the pressure cams 23, 33.

By reduction of the pressure on the briquets while discharging to approximately one-fourth, such reduced pressure together with the adhesion of the particles and eohesi'on of the mass of the briqueting material will hold the briquets in shape while allowing air that has been compressed in the briquets during the compression thereof to freely escape at the edges of the briquet.

The active faces of the top cams are from a to b and of the bottom cams from g to c to d to e.

The timing is such that the pressure-increasing faces a -to b of the top pressure cams 33 are active to cause increasing top or downward pressure on the briquet material for practically one-fourth of a cycle while the bottom rams 13 are supported by the lower level sup orting faces f to g, after which the lifting faces g to c act upon the rollers 19 to raise thel same to the upper level pressure faces c to d of the bottom pressure cams which then come into service to cause upward or bottom pressure on the briqueting material while the pressure-increasing faces a to b continue to act for another one-fourth of the cycle to produce in conjunction with the lower cams a maximum compression of the briquets as in Fig. 3, said compression being from eight hundred to twelve hundred pounds per square inch more or less.

The lift-out pressure faces d to e of the bottom pressure cams 22 are active to raise the bottom rams 13 to discharge the briquets 34 from the mold 9 at which time the compression may, as indicated in Fig. 4, be somewhat reduced by reason of the pressure-decreasing faces b to a of the top pres. sure cams 33, being adjacent the top-bearing rollers 18; and during said discharge the compression may be evenly maintained by Jche weight of the top-bearing rollers 18 and -all of the elements that move therewith.

Means are provided to limit the movement toward each other of the top and bottom rams 12, 13 and in other words to prevent the top rams from dropping below a predetermined maximum.' pressure level; so that in case the briquetmaterial is unequally distributed in the different ends of the moldV the top rains at one end cannot drop or be forced below the maximum pressure level of the top rams at the other end, by which means cramping of the rams in the mold is avoided; and furthermore so that in case the pressure mechanism gets out of adjustment as by breakage of the gear wheel or the like, the adjacent ends of the rams cannot strike one another or produce such eX- cessive pressures on the material as might cause destruction of the interior portion of the machine.

Such limiting means constituting a safety device is preferably formed by providing each of the outward projecting ends of the bottom roller shaft 21 with a spacer arm 35 journaled thereon and constructed of a box 36 and a jointed rod 37 that is screwed into the box and passes through and snugly its a perforation 38 in the standard intermediate member 3 which thus forms a guide for the jointed rod of the spacer arm 35.

'Dhe upper endsl of the spacer rods 37 project above the intermediate standard members 3 and are provided with flanged heads 39 beneath the rojecting outer ends of the top roller sha t 20 there being an interval of an eighth of an inch, more or less, between the spacer arm heads and the top roller shaft, 2O when the axes of the lower and upper rollers are in parallelism so that when the machine is in normal operation the top and bottom rollers may not get out of parallelism suliciently to cramp the movement of the rollers toward one an.- other within the limits set by the spacer arms.

The jointed construction of the rod 37 admits of adjustment of the length of the rod so as to produce more or less space as desired between the flanged heads 39 and the outer ends of the top roller shaft 20, and said construction also provides ease of assembling the rod and its parts in place after `the other parts of the machine have been assembled.

The top cam shaft 32 may be provided with a pair of ram lift-out cams 40 which act upon yoke bars 41 fastened by bolts 42 to the top ram holder 14, in order to 'raise the top rams 12 above the briquets and hold them suspended for a sulficientlength of time to allow a charger 43 to discharge the briquets and refill the mold as set forth at length in my hereirrbefore mentioned application.

The mold 9 is provided at the middle with a pair of posts 44, one at either side of the mold and mounted on the base to give additional 'rigidity to the mold.

In practical operation power will be applied to drive the pulley 30 in the direction of the arrow and the material to be molded will be fed to `the mold 9 from a hopper, not shown, by the charger 43, while the top rams 12 are suspended above the mold by the action of the lift-out cams 40 and while the bottom rams 13 are at the end of their down strokes. A

Then the pressure increasing faces a to b of the top pressure cams 33 will cause top pressure of the top rams 12 upon the material while the bottom rams 13 are stationary and will then continue to cause downward pressure of the top rams while the pressure faces c to d of the bottom cams 22 are act-ive to cause bottom pressure of the bottom rams 13 upon the material, as in Fig. 3.

Then the pressure is reduced as the pressure increasing faces a to b of the top cams 33 are turned out of commission. and a desired amount. of compression of the briquetsV is maintained by the weight of the topbearing rollers 18 and all of the elements that move therewith.

Then while the compression is maintained, the lift-out faces d to e of the bottom cams .quet is so great that after the air has been practically excluded inthe manner set forth the briquets will support the Weight of the ram holder, rollers, cross-heads and other pressure applying means moving with the top rams, without any crushing or distorting effect on the briquets.

I claim 1.` In a machine of the character set forth, the combination with a mold, of pressure means to produce a briquet in the mold under full pressure, and means to discharge the briquet from the mold under a reduced pressure of bothdies. v

2. In a machine of the character set forth, the combination with a mold, of pressure means to produce a briquet in the mold under full pressure, means to reduce the pressure on the briquet in the mold, and means to gradually discharge airfrom the briquet While the briquet is under such reduced pressure.

.....vv v..V nu uvuuum van; uciu LUblYU UJ 111156 the bottom ram While the pressure-increasing face of the top cam is out of commission to cause reduction in pressure, said top ram being raised above the level of the mold by pressure of the bottom ram.

5. A briquet machine comprising a mold, top and bottom rams for the mold, a weight superposed on the top rams, and means to simultaneously operate the top and bottom rams for an interval of time to produce maximum pressure and then to operate only the -bottom rams for another interval of v time to raise the top rams together with the molded material and the superposed Weight to effect ejective movement.

' In testimony whereof, I have hereuntoset my hand at Los Angeles, California, this 12th day of April, 1912.

EMIL FERNHOLTZ. In presence of- JAMES R. ToWNsEND, GEORGE H. HILEs. 

